How Common Is A False Pregnancy Test?

A pregnancy test is expected to be very accurate. A False Pregnancy Test can be tragic. If you don’t come to know that you are pregnant, you won’t take the necessary precautions.

Early pregnancy needs a lot of care. An illusion that you are pregnant despite not being pregnant has a different set of consequences.

For this reason why we always tell our readers to not rely entirely on home pregnancy tests.

You must consult someone who knows about everything that goes into your body when you are pregnant.

Undoubtedly such a person cannot be an experienced lady who can tell you whether it is a boy or a girl by looking at a baby bump.

It has to be a qualified doctor who has the best of a lab to test your pregnancy.

Top 15 Reasons For False Pregnancy Tests
Top 15 Reasons For False Pregnancy Tests

What is a false pregnancy test?

A False pregnancy test is a pregnancy test result that is contradictory to your medical condition at that time.

What are the different kinds of false pregnancy tests?

Yes, perhaps to your surprise there are different kinds of false results:

False positive pregnancy test

  • This is the pregnancy test that tells you that you are pregnant, but you are not.
  • It is FALSE – POSITIVE!
  • There are many possible reasons for getting a false positive pregnancy test.
  • A false positive pregnancy test is wrong for both kinds of women – who want a baby and those who don’t want a baby.
  • False-positive pregnancy tests are less frequent. Why? Because they need the presence of another medical condition for showing up. A false positive pregnancy test won’t come up due to a human error.

False negative pregnancy test

  • A false negative pregnancy test is when the pregnancy test tells you that you are not pregnant and in reality you are pregnant.
  • A false negative pregnancy test is very common relative to a false positive.
  • Many major pregnancy test brands have got their pregnancy test kits to be almost 100% precise. A false-negative result due to the pregnancy test kit’s fault is rare.

How common is a false pregnancy result?

  • How common are false positive pregnancy tests? As already mentioned that occurrence of a false positive pregnancy test is sporadic. Hardly any recorded reviews by women customers would earn you a false positive pregnancy test.

    Chances of false positive pregnancy test: Chances of getting a false test result do not depend much on the pregnancy test brand.

    A false positive pregnancy test occurs because of the medical conditions of the woman.

    One can get a false positive pregnancy test if she has leftover hCG after infertility treatment.

    Certain drugs raise hCG production even without pregnancy.

    A false positive pregnancy test is rare. However, if a woman has a history of repeated miscarriages, she can get a false positive pregnancy test often.

  • How common are false negative pregnancy tests? A false negative pregnancy test is very common. 

    Chances of false negative pregnancy test: Getting a false negative pregnancy test is common.

    Many women can’t wait for two weeks to take a pregnancy test. Taking a pregnancy test after a missed period gives a false negative pregnancy test because the body needs time to make up hCG enough to cross 25 mIU/mL (the level to which most pregnancy tests are sensitive). After this, the pregnancy test can detect pregnancy.

    A false negative pregnancy test also occurs when on birth control because of the hormones in it. False-negative pregnancy test after IUI is common because the body needs time for implanting the fertilized egg.

    How common is a false negative pregnancy test? There is no official number to report, but false negative pregnancy tests are frequent. It also depends on the brand of pregnancy test you chose.

    Some pregnancy tests can detect pregnancy six days before the missed period. They have fewer chances of giving a false negative pregnancy test. 

    Depending on the brand of pregnancy test some may have false negative pregnancy tests very commonly. Other high-end brand pregnancy tests have fewer instances of false negative pregnancy tests.

What are the common reasons for getting a false test?

The Top 15 common reasons for getting a false test result are: 

Top 7 causes of false positive pregnancy test

  1. Evaporation lines give a false positive pregnancy test: Evaporation lines are the marks left by urine once it completely evaporates.  You will read it as a false positive pregnancy test. Similarly disregarding a test line as an evaporation line gives a false negative pregnancy test. Evaporations lines can cause false pregnancy tests.
  2. Suffering from disorders like PCO and ovarian cancer causes a false pregnancy positive test: These disorders might elevate the production of hCG by your body even when you are not pregnant. The pregnancy test simply detects the hCG hormone. It cannot differentiate whether the hormone hCG is due to an ovarian cyst or because you are pregnant. Tumors like gestational tumors or trophoblastic diseases can give false positive pregnancy test. These results will be a false positive pregnancy test.
  3. Eating foods that color your urine cause a false positive pregnancy test: Saffron, rhubarb, beetroots and even spinach color your urine. The standard pregnancy test result gives results as colored lines. If your urine is already colored then indeed there will be confusion and it will lead to a false PT result.
  4. Chemical pregnancies give a false positive pregnancy test: Chemical pregnancies are another reason for getting a false result. A chemical pregnancy is a condition in which you have a pregnancy that is not typical as in the case of tubal pregnancy. So such pregnancies have only one fate, and that is spontaneous abortion. They will give a false result even after abortion.
  5. Fertility medications: Fertility drugs raise hCG levels in your blood. The injections of hCG given in the last stages of IVF treatments give rise to hCG production. Thus doctors advise you to avoid home pregnancy test after IVF. They will raise your hCG before you are surely pregnant causing a false positive pregnancy test.
  6. Early pregnancy miscarriage: Chromosomal abnormalities cause first trimester miscarriages. Even after a miscarriage, the hCG levels remain elevated, and it produces a false positive pregnancy test. It may be you got pregnant and later got a miscarriage. Miscarriage causes a false positive pregnancy test.
  7. Recent delivery: If you recently delivered a baby your body will still have hCG from the pregnancy. A recent delivery can give a false positive pregnancy test. A woman who had sex soon after birth might take a pregnancy test to get a false positive pregnancy test.

Top 4 causes of false negative pregnancy test

  1. Low levels of hCG give false negative pregnancy test: If your body is not producing sufficient hCG, then the pregnancy test cannot detect it. So in this case too you will get a false pregnancy test. This happens because we all are different, and so are our bodies. The level of hCG doubles every 48 hours. But in some cases, it might even take 72 hours.
  2. Taking the test with a dilute sample of urine gives a false negative pregnancy test: If you will not use a concentrated urine sample or will drink caffeine or other products that alter urine, then you might get a false PT. This is because of the same reason as above that hCG levels will fall per unit volume. Also, other products might interfere with the pregnancy test.
  3. Using a low-quality pregnancy test causes a false negative pregnancy test: Some pregnancy tests are not sensitive enough to detect early pregnancy. If you buy such a pregnancy test, you can get a false negative pregnancy test. You may take a pregnancy test after seeing telltale signs of pregnancy. An incompetent pregnancy test will not detect low levels of hCG during early pregnancy.
  4. An expired pregnancy test gives a false negative pregnancy test: Expired pregnancy tests cannot detect a pregnancy. The dye in the pregnancy test can no longer combine with hCG. Using an expired pregnancy test gives a false negative pregnancy test.

Sometimes human mistakes can cause a false pregnancy test:

  1. Applying excess sample: If you think that applying extra drops of urine to the pregnancy test kit might get you a better pregnancy test result you are mistaken. All that will happen is that you will get a false PT. Applying excess samples will create an overloading situation and that will hamper the movement of urine in the hCG strip. All this will lead to clogging and hence give a false result.
  2. The human error: If you do not follow the specific instructions that come along with a pregnancy test, then you can get a wrong answer. Some pregnancy tests are not compatible with midstream testing. If you pee on them, then you will get the wrong result.
  3. Reading the pregnancy test result after the allotted time: If you read your pregnancy test after the result reading time is up then you will get a false PT. The evaporation lines might come up, or the test line will disappear.
  4. Contaminating the hCG strip by touching with your hands or other things: The hCG strip inside a pregnancy test kit is the most sensitive area of the pregnancy test. It has the detector particles which test pregnancy. Hence I’d you touch the hCG strip these particles will get contaminated, and it will give a false pregnancy test.

How to find out a false pregnancy result?

It can only be figured out by an experienced woman or the one who has a strong instinct.

For finding out a false pregnancy test follow these steps:

  1. Recollect all that has happened concerning sexual activities in the past ten days.
  2. Pen down all that comes to your mind.
  3. Observe all the changes in your body and pen them down too.
  4. Read about symptoms of early pregnancy.
  5. Compare and analyze and then draw out a conclusion.
  6. Read the results of the pregnancy test at the time of taking the test and click a picture of it if possible.
  7. Take an online pregnancy test.
  8. Get a doctor’s appointment and discuss your findings with him or her.
  9. Once you are with the doctor, then you won’t need to brainstorm much after that.

What to do after getting a false pregnancy result?

Once you’ve figured out that the pregnancy test was a false pregnancy test then head to the doctor or duplicate the test the next morning.

If you continue to see the symptoms of early pregnancy in you, then let your doctor know about all of it.

A false pregnancy test is a very damaging thing that could happen to any woman. It can affect you adversely both emotionally and health-wise.

Here we have got the best pregnancy test reviews for you. It is crucial that you chose the right pregnancy test brand and product for avoiding the incident of getting a false result.

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